¡Hola, hola! Week 30 is here! Woohoo! And how wonderful it is to know that the Lord has helped us to persevere and not lose heart. For all of us working behind this project it is a great joy to hear from you and know that the Lord is doing a mighty thing in your lives and communities as you open the Word and read it. Our God is faithful and His Word is sure!

I have been thinking this week about the – very simple but nonetheless amazing – fact that when  we take the Book of God and read it, we are opening the same book that all of the Redeemed of the Lord have read through the ages all over the world. The same message that sustained them sustains us. The same Truth that has shaken the world before, is the same Truth that is shaking ours today. We are truly united by the same living Word to the family of God through time and space.

All of this thinking gave me the idea to share with you some advice from the Saints from long ago regarding the Scriptures, especially advice on how to read and approach the Scriptures (this explains why our email is longer this week).

John Newton, in one of his letters wrote, “If you sincerely seek the Lord’s direction by prayer, you will of course make use of his appointed means of information, and search the Scriptures. Give me leave to offer you the following advises, while you are reading and comparing spiritual things with spiritual. First, Not to lay too great stress upon a few detached texts, but seek for that sense which is most agreeable to the general strain of the Scripture. The infallible word of God must, doubtless, be consistent with itself: if it does not appear so to us, the obscurity and seeming inconsistency must be charged to the remaining darkness and ignorance of our minds. As many locks, whose wards differ, are opened with equal ease by one master-key; so there is a certain comprehensive view of scriptural truth, which opens hard places, solves objections, and happily reconciles, illustrates, and harmonizes many texts, which to those who have not this master-key, frequently styled the analogy of faith, appear little less than contradictory to each other. When you obtain this key, you will be sure that you have the right sense.”^[1]

Spurgeon delivered a wonderful sermon on how to read the Bible^[2], and I will share his main points here: 1) Read and depend on the Spirit of God: “Look up, reader! The next time the book is in your hands, look up before you open  it—and while your eyes are running down the page, look up and pray that God would shine upon it! And when the chapter is finished and you put the book away, take a minute, again, to look up and ask His blessing. If by reading the Scriptures we were  only always reminded of the Holy Spirit. If we got no other good from the Scripture, itself, except the turning of our souls to think upon that divine and blessed one, that would be, in itself, an inestimable blessing! Do read, then, thoughtfully remembering the great author.”  2) Read and meditate: “I like to turn it over and over again in my mind, for any one text of the Scriptures you will find to be like the kaleidoscope. Turn it one way and you say,“What a fair truth of God is this!” Turn it another way and you see the same truth, but under how different an aspect! Turn it yet once more—and keep doing it all day—and you will be amazed and delighted to find in how many lights the same truth will appear and what wonderful permutations and combinations you can find in it!” 3) Read and apply: “Endeavor in  reading  a page of  the  Scriptures,  always  to  see how much it belongs to you…Ask God not to let your Bible be another man’s Bible, but your own Bible. 4) Read and practice. 5) Read and pray: “A passage in Scripture will often open up when you pray over it…we  should  pray  over every passage in order that we may be enabled to get out of it what God would impart to us. A text is like a treasure chest which is locked—and prayer is the key to open it—and then we get God’s treasure! The text is God’s letter, full of loving words, but prayer must break the seal.” 6) Read and try: “Scripture is not to fit your opinions, but your opinions to conform to the blessed word!” 7) Read and tell out: So you, Christian, who are the noblest work of God, should not be satisfied unless your life is continually spreading around of the truth of God which has been made vital to you and will be new life to others!”

Thomas Watson has some advice on how to read the Bible^[3], but I will mention only two points: 1) He encourages us to “get a fervent love for the Scriptures,” and he continues saying, “Prizing refers to the judgment of a man, but love means also the affections. We should delight to be in the pages of God’s Word; we must learn to delight in its comforts and in its reproofs and corrections.” 2) Watson also chooses to encourage those who struggle to profit from their reading saying, “You can profit from reading the Scriptures even if you do not attain to the level of others. Do not judge yourself according to the standard of others.”

I hope you also find encouragement in these words and that you continue to strive to abide in the Word of God:

This week we will read Jeremiah, 2 Timothy, Proverbs 22 and 23, and Psalms 48, 49, 52. And I am sure you will find this to be a banquet that will satisfy your soul.

May our prayer this week be, “Lord, teach us to pray as we read the Word and mediate on it as we pray and work.”

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and Ladies Fellowship Team from Christ Church

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¡Hola, hola! Happy week 29 of the Bible Reading Challenge! Thank you to all who have shared your testimonies (on the Facebook page, personal messages or emails) of how the Lord has used this challenge to encourage you to persevere in the Word. One of the reasons I love hearing your testimonies is that, as I read your words, I can clearly see that it is really nothing that we are doing that is making the change in your life, it is the Holy Spirit through the Word of God who is doing ALL the encouraging. It is ALL His doing and for that we are immensely grateful.

And let me explain that when I say that we recognize that it is the Holy Spirit through His Word doing a wonderful thing in your life – and in mine – I am saying more than just a good, biblical phrase. I am affirming what Protestant Christians through the ages have believed and defended even with their own lives. So what do we believe about the Scripture, Friends? I want to mention here 5 important things that we believe about the doctrine of the Scriptures^[1]:

1. We believe that its authority comes from God Himself. God the Father is the One who speaks the Word, Jesus is the Incarnate Word of God, and the Holy Spirit empowers His Word and vivifies it in the life of men.

2. We believe in the inerrancy and the infallibility of the Bible, which means that we firmly believe that there are no errors in it and that its teachings are all true, and that it “is completely trustworthy as a guide to salvation and the life of faith and will not fail to accomplish its purpose” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms).

3. We believe in the necessity of the Scriptures. We believe that we need the Word of God to show us what sin is, to teach us how can we repent, how can we be saved and how can we live in this world. We need it and God in His kindness gave it to us. He has made Himself known to us not only in the Creation (that would not be enough for us to know the way to be a saved), but through the written Word so that we may know Him.

4. We believe in the clarity of the Scriptures. By this we affirm that anyone who can read or hear the Word of God proclaimed can understand the way to be saved. The only thing that can impede a man from understanding the Gospel message is his own sinful nature, but the Holy Spirit can always open the eyes of those who are blind so that they can understand it and repent and believe and come to a saving faith.

5. We believe that the Word of God is sufficient. In the Scriptures, God has given us all that we need for knowledge of salvation and how to live a life that is pleasing to Him. We don’t need to hear an external – or internal – voice to hear God’s voice. We can always read/hear what God wants to say to us in the Sacred Scriptures.

I hope that by reading these points you will find the desire to want to study more of the precious and important Doctrine of Scripture. We should want to know the Scriptures more, to love them more, to obey them more so that we may know our God better and worship Him better. We want to truly be women of the Word!

We have already finished reading Job and Romans and now this week we will be moving into Ecclesiastes, James, 1 Timothy, Romans 8, Ephesians 2, and Psalms 47, 69, 88, 105, and 130. If you allow me, I would like to suggest a little change on how to read these readings so that you will not have to cut the books so much (which is always the best option):

On Monday read James and Psalm 47, on Tuesday read Ecclesiastes 1-6, on Wednesday Ecclesiastes 7-12, on Thursday 1 Timothy, and Friday remains the same.

On Saturday we have a catch-up day and if you are up for a challenge within the challenge, read (or listen!) to the epistle of Paul to Romans in one sitting (or even maybe two… if you want to stretch it into Sunday).

May our prayer this week be, “Father, we are often afraid to pray, asking you to give us humble hearts, but we know that you give more grace to the humble; so we draw near to you through the Word and prayer, trusting that in our drawing near to you, you will continue to draw near to us -even in the midst of our trials and our humbling.” (James 4:6-10)

Under His Sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

 

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^[1] Read the Westminster Confession of Faith Question 1 to dig deeper into this question.

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¡Hola, hola! Welcome to week 28, Friends! Do you realize that we are almost exactly 2 months away from finishing this challenge? Crazy, right? God has been so incredibly kind to us in drawing closer to us as we have been learning to draw closer to Him. Now, I must say I wish I could hear all the things that each one of you have been gleaning from this challenge. I am sure each story is wonderful!

This week I came across this article by John Piper, an article that was adapted from his book A Peculiar Glory (a book I absolutely loved!). And when I read these words in his book I remember thinking that they captured exactly my love and passion for the Scriptures, so I want to share them with you so that you may be encouraged too:

“Whenever I read the Bible, it was never like a masterpiece hanging in a museum that I viewed this way and that. Rather, it was like a window. Or like binoculars. My view of the Bible was always a view through the Bible. So, all along the way, my view was getting clearer and brighter and deeper, I mean the reality seen through it was getting clearer and brighter and deeper. Clearer as the edges of things became less fuzzy, and I could see how things fit together rather than just smudging into each other. Brighter as the beauty and impact of the whole message was more and more attractive. And deeper in the sense of depth perspective—I suppose photographers would say “depth of field.” Things stretched off into eternity with breathtaking implications—in both directions past and future. You could sum this up with the phrase the glory of God. That’s what I was seeing.”

And then he continues saying,

“This is where I stand with hope and joy and love. This is the window of the Word through which the vision of God has exerted its compelling power. I do not merely hold a view of Scripture. I am held. The glory of God shining through his Word has been an irresistible treasure. Nothing in this world comes close to the beauty and the value of God and his ways and his grace.”

This phrase, Friends, “I do not merely hold a view of Scripture. I am held.”  shakes my whole being. And the more we spend time in the Word, the more we come to understand this truth. The Word of God is holding our lives, in the most literal sense. Remember what we read in Hebrews? We read that Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power.” If the sun is in its place, shining and giving warmth, and the ocean is still obeying his Word and doesn’t spill over the earth, and the snow falls, and then Spring comes, and stars keep shining because of the power of His Word, then certainly our very existence is hanging on its power too. When we come to the Word, we come to the very Words of God. We don’t merely read words, we are sustained, held by each Word of God we read. And when we humbly come before His Word, He opens our eyes to see more of the glorious truths hidden as treasures in His Word. This is our God, a God that wants to be known, a God who has spoken, a God who has given us His Word so that we may be held by it. So if you feel like you need someone to hold you, come to Christ, come to the Word of God, He will hold you in the palm of His hand and sustain you with the power of His Word.

This week we will finish reading Job and Romans. We will meet Job’s last friend, Elihu who seems to get more than one thing right. And the reason we know that Elihu got things right is because God doesn’t rebuke him, and Job doesn’t try to argue against his case. So keep that in mind as you read his speech (six chapters!). At the end of the book, after everyone has had a chance to speak, it is the Word of the Lord that is last and the one that prevails. His Word sustained Job through these trials. His Word was honored. God wins.

Romans ends exalting God too. Jesus our Redeemer (Job’s, Paul’s, and ours) is exalted as the only One “who is able to strengthen us according to the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ (His Word!).” Then Paul reminds us that now through “the prophetic writings” (His Word!) this gospel has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God to bring obedience of faith – to the only wise God be glory forever more through Jesus Christ! Amen.” Oh! How the Word holds us!

Saturday we have a catch-up day, and I suggest that if you are current in your readings, you read the first epistle of Paul to Timothy.

May our prayer this week be, “Lord, hold me with your Word, with the gospel of Jesus Christ, every day.”

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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¡Hola, hola! Welcome to week 27 of the Bible Reading Challenge hosted by Christ Church in Moscow, ID. We are so very grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given us to serve you through this challenge and to be reading the Bible with so many women around the world. Aren’t you grateful to live on 2018 and to take advantage of all this technology to grow in Christ and advance His kingdom? God is clearly using all means possible to make His name known throughout all the nations! Alleluia!

I have been thinking about this wonderful principle of having the Word of God abide in us. We see it throughout the Scriptures, but especially in the gospel of John, in the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ezra and Nehemiah. But what does it mean to have the Word abide in us? Does it mean to read it over and over again so that we can check the boxes of our Bible Reading plan? I am sure you know that the answer has to be something bigger than that. It has to do with believing the Word of God. We read it believing that God will use it to change us. We read it believing that it will give us life. We read it believingthat it will make the simple wise. We read it believing that it will comfort our weary souls. We do not simply read it; we believe it. And when we believe it, it bears much fruit in our lives.  In John 5 we read the words of Jesus that say exactly this, “and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.  You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”

Friend, if you have been reading along but you find unbelief in your heart, know that unless you repent, your heart will continue to be hardened. Cry to God today, repent of your unbelief and ask Him to open your eyes to see Jesus, to give you a new heart that cries, Abba, Father! and to seal you with His Holy Spirit. He will not turn away from your cries. He loves to reveal Himself to those who repent and call on Him. He will always come and meet you and show you the Father. He alone can make His Word take root in you. Come to Christ today!

This week we will start with catch-up day (Yay for catch-up days on Mondays!). If you are current in your readings my suggestion is that you read the epistle of James. In James 5:11 we find the key to understanding the book of Job which we will start reading on Tuesday.  I also hope you can watch this week’s webinar (Monday at 10:00 am PST) in which we will be talking more about this.

We will also read Psalms 42 and 56 (wait until you see how well they fit in with the other readings!), Philippians and Romans (ch.1-8). Now why did I choose this order? Why Philippians and why Romans along with Job? Well, we will see in the book of Job that his friends clearly failed to encourage him and to come alongside him, and in the epistle of Paul to the Philippians we will learn from Paul how to walk through suffering with other believers. Another thing that we see in the book of Job is that he is clearly in need of a mediator, someone who would come and declare him righteous. He finds himself in a puzzle, and by the grace of God he believes that His Redeemer lives and will indeed judge his case rightly. And in the epistle to the Romans we will read how we, who are in great need of a Mediator can be made right with God. Job’s Redeemer is our Redeemer too and by grace through faith we too have been declared righteous before God. The Accuser is defeated and in Christ nothing can separate us from the love of God.

As you can already see, this week’s readings will be super encouraging. Persevere in the Word and have a plan to come to it every day!

May our prayer this week be, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Don’t you have the Word of God in front of you to read of His great deeds and steadfast love? Don’t you have His Spirit in you? Hope in God; for I shall again and again and again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” (prayer based on Psalm 42:5)

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Ladies Fellowship from Christ Church.

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¡Hola, hola! Are you ready for a new week in this Bible Reading Challenge? Are you behind in your readings? I have good news for you: jump in on today’s reading! Yes, yes, yes, don’t listen to the perfectionist inside of you and just do it. No more excuses, no more putting it off for another day, for another less busy season, just take the Book of God and read it today.  Are you current in your readings? Wonderful! We are so happy to know that many of you are. God has been so incredibly kind with us and our project. We are praying for you and trusting that God will continue to work in you as you draw near to Him through His Word.

This past week our friend Rachel Jankovic shared something on our Facebook page that was really good, so I want to share with you this quote from what she wrote knowing that you will find it encouraging:

“Reading the whole Bible gives us that kind of view of God’s work in the world and all of history and in our salvation. We see it as it is – alive, full of beauty and dimension, full of glory. If you distill the gospel into one pamphlet (without loooong genealogies or laws and details) you could think that you have captured the essence. That all of these extra tidbits about beams and things was unnecessary. But when you do this you are drawing the stick figure to stand in place of the real thing. If you want to know God, read His word. See Him! Because the word of God is real and full of all kinds of different angles. It is a living Word. We need to train our minds through constantly feeding on His word to see more and more of what has been revealed to us in it.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12-14

This passage speaks of scripture not only as a living thing, but as one that is more living than us. It pierces us in ways that nothing human could. In the soul and spirit, in the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And it changes us in a way that no idea could.

So keep on reading! Keep on looking to Christ as you read the sections that feel unimportant. Read in faith, knowing that your heart and mind are being changed such that you can more fully see His glory.”

And so we will take the Book of God and open it prayerfully trusting that God, through our exposure to the Scriptures and the work of the Holy Spirit in us, will change our lives, our loves, and our thoughts.

I also want to share -again- with you today the information about our Grace Agenda Conference on April 13th and 14th in Moscow, ID. Friday, April 13thwe will have a Pre-Conference for women: Women in the Word: What We Learned in The Bible Reading Challenge. The speakers will be Nancy Wilson, Rebekah Merkle, Rachel Jankovic, and myself. You can find all the information here. We really hope you can come!

Now it’s time to talk about our weekly reading, and let me tell you that I am super excited about the books we will be reading this week. We will be reading Ezra and Nehemiah which seem to have been one same book in the Hebrew Canon – and maybe even one with Chronicles. In these books we will see how the promises of God and His faithfulness carry His people through the exile, through the consequences of their sins, and hears their cry of repentance from the land of captivity.   A new Exodus is in front of us. The people of God will come back to the Promised land and God Himself will restore their relationship with Him through the exposition of the Word and right worship. We will be, I pray, encouraged to take the Book of God and keep read it diligently and worship Him biblically, because only when we do that can our lives be transformed.

We will also read Psalms 33, 35-41, and Proverbs 15-19. I trust that the Lord will bless your prayer time as you pray these Psalms back to God.

May our prayer this week be,  “Your name, oh Lord, is a strong tower. Help us all, your people whom you have cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, to run into it and be safe. And how will we come if it is not through your Word?” (based on Proverbs 18:10)

Have a most blessed week, Friends! See you on Monday at 10:00 PST in our webinar!

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Ladies Fellowship team from Christ Church

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